Vodacom gives free access to education and job search sites

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

In a bid to help address cost challenges associated with access to education and career websites, Vodacom, through the Vodacom Foundation and its NXT LVL youth brand, has zero rated the charge to some key basic education sites and career portals.

The interventions are an illustration of Vodacom’s core belief that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and mobile technology can be utilised to improve and advance learning, address skills development and help in finding employment.

The Vodacom e-School portal, launched in January 2015, and the NXT LVL Careers, are prime examples of how Vodacom is contributing to society.

The Vodacom e-School provides curriculum-aligned content for Grade 4 to 12 learners including daily lessons, videos, assignments in the form of quizzes and personalised progress reports. This is zero-rated, in other words free, for Vodacom customers.

Already there are 150 000 learners registered on the portal. The portal can be accessed by visiting www.vodacom.co.za/e-school from your cell phone, tablet or laptop.

Executive Head for Vodacom Foundation, Mthobeli Temfene says: “Many learners in our country often do not have access to learning material such as textbooks, which makes excelling at school more difficult. The same applies to young graduates looking for employment as more and more job placements go online and the costs of data is a barrier.”

Tengimfene says: “As an investor in the country and an established partner in addressing social challenges, Vodacom’s goal is to ensure that learners throughout the country have access to some basic tools to help enhance their learning experience and that young graduates similarly get help in searching for jobs.”

As a caring company with a 17 year history of giving back to communities, Vodacom is committed to easing the cost conundrum that young job seekers face. We launched Vodacom NXT LVL Careers in June 2016. The programme is aimed at young job-seekers and enables them to browse for jobs, upload CVs and apply for available positions for free.

Access to the careers portal is zero-rated for Vodacom subscribers. NXT LVL Careers can be accessed through the www.vodacom.co.za website then clicking on Services and then on NXT LVL Careers.

Vodacom takes every opportunity with its network to deliver social offerings through its zero-rated offers to customers. We have an open invitation to providers of content aimed at advancing employability in South Africa, and invite interested parties to e-mail us at [email protected] to apply to have applicable content added to our zero-rated portal.

Other Vodacom zero rated sites include:

The Mobile Education programme, which is Vodacom's holistic approach to ensuring sustainable benefit to educators and learners by providing Internet connectivity, ICT equipment, content and teacher training through 81 ICT centres across the country.

Vodacom Tries for Books campaign. The programme is an educational content application, which is freely available on tablets at the 81 Vodacom ICT resource centres that are situated across the country. The e-library has been up loaded with e-books made available by publishing partners including Via Afrika, Oxford University Press, Shuter & Shooter and FunDza. Internet connectivity and access to the e-libraries is free.

In a bid to help address skills development and job creation within the ICT sector, Vodacom together with its partners Independent Development Trust (IDT) and Cisco embarked on a drive to help empower unemployed youth with ICT skills training. The partnership trains unemployed youth in ICT skills and helps further develop them into ICT entrepreneurs. To date, 273 trainees have gained basic computer skills, IT essentials, enterprise development and business skills through the programme.

Vodacom Millionaires every month donates a fully equipped computer centres and provides free access to the Internet to disadvantaged schools. More than 420 schools have been given computer centres and free Internet connectivity through Vodacom Millionaire.

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